Funny but Gross

Okay, so I was just over at Briana's blog and read the entry her husband wrote which included hilarious/gross boy incidents. It reminded me that I forgot to post about a recent incident my hubby Joe had while I was gone for a couple hours.

Adam had to go potty, and proceeded to sit on the toilet (intending to poop we assume, since he usually stands to pee). The lid & seat were up, but I guess Adam didn't notice and he sat down anyway. He started to pee and then fell in...while peeing...pee flies into the air and the poor little boy is soaked from taking a dip in the toilet. It is then that Joe notices that Adam had been holding a roll in his hand. Yes, a roll, as in bread, from dinner. So the toilet-water-soaked boy in the pee-splattered-room is still holding a soggy dripping roll that has just had a dunk in the toilet. Joe, who is distracted and trying to help Brendan with something else at the same time, helps Adam, tells him to throw away the roll, and then sends him in to his room to pick out dry clothes. Then he goes back to finish helping Brendan. Fast forward several minutes...Adam is in his room in dry clothes, all seems well. That is, until Joe walks in and sees Adam chewing. On a roll. Yes, *that* roll. EWWWWWWWWWWWWWWW!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Weekend Recap

Well, we had a good bbq/bonfire for Joe's co-worker. Things turned out fine. We had good time, and now our huge brush pile is gone- double bonus. lol It was a huge fire, the pictures don't really do it justice.

Saturday swimming lessons started up again for the boys. My two nephews signed up this time too, so the boys got to see their cousins and I got to chat with my sister during the lesson. So that was fun. That morning we also picked up our AFM food, and the church we picked it up from was having a yard sale too, so we got the boys a few things from that.

Sunday I finally had a weekend day that I didn't have to be anywhere, yea! I worked on catching up with laundry, dishes, and took some "me" time to waste away part of the day on my new addiction- facebook. lol Thanks to Briana for the extra push to join last week, now I'm completely obsessed and having so much fun finding old friends and neighbors from all different parts of my life, some from elementary school even. How fun!

Also, October is Breast Cancer Awareness month. Click below to go to the Breast Cancer sit to help donate free mammograms...all you have to do is click the button on the Breast Cancer site, it is a free way to help!

Un-Tackled Tuesday

Ugh, I can't post a Tackle it Tuesday this week, as nothing got tackled. In fact, I'd even go as far as to say things are going the opposite way and getting "untackled". lol I had to work all weekend, and the weekend before that we were gone. So I feel SO behind on EVERYTHING. I had to go straight back into the work week without having any time to do even the basics like laundry, dishes, etc. And, to make matters worse, we have a bunch of hubby's co-workers coming over Friday for a going-away bonfire/bbq for one of the guys. Which will be a lot of fun, it's just that I have SO much to do before then to make things even presentable to company. We still haven't fixed the window panel that Adam shattered either, and now it is starting to fall out in sections (whereas before it was all still there, just in a million pieces- now all the pieces are falling). Our house is a mess, the yard is a mess, ack! We'll get there though...just have to work on it a little each evening and hope that things get done.

Menu Plan Monday: Family Favorites Edition

Here's the plan for this week, including some family favorites:

Monday: *Family Favorite* - Spaghetti

(I know everyone knows how to make spaghetti, but thought I'd mention that I make ours with whole wheat spaghetti, ground turkey, some diced yellow onions, and Ragu sauce. I also sprinkle in some Italian Seasoning.)

Tuesday: *Family Favorite* - Garlic Lime Chicken

Wednesday: Chicken Quesadillas

Thursday: leftovers

Friday: Hamburgers & Hotdogs, etc (we are hosting a going-away bonfire/bbq gathering for a co-worker of Joe's)

Saturday: Pizza/family night (we usually have pizza/family night on Fridays, but since we have the bbq this Friday, I'm moving this to Sat. this week)

Sunday: *Family Favorite* - Oven "Fried" Chicken

I don't have an official recipe for this, but here's what I do:

Use rolling pin to crush a long package of saltine crackers in a gallon-sized ziplock bag.

Add 1 or 2 packets (depending on your preference/taste) of dry Italian Dressing mix to crushed crackers and shake bag to mix.

Then I have a dish of egg/milk mixture that I roll each chicken leg in to coat, and then put a couple legs in the ziplock bag at a time, shake it up until cracker/seasoning mix is covering the chicken legs. Put all chicken legs on a cookie sheet and bake in oven until chicken is no longer pink.

Is September Over Yet?

Every day, week, month and even year seems to fly by lately. I am usually completely floored at how fast time goes by. However, September is a different story. September is my least favorite month of the entire year...possibly even worse than the freezing cold days of winter and the hottest dog days of summer. Yes, September is what I dread the whole year, and I am always so glad when it is over. If you don't see me for a couple more days, it is because I am working all day Sat & Sun at a local festival. (and we've been busy getting ready and set up for it this week also, so I apologize if I haven't visited your blog as much lately). Don't get me wrong, the festival is great...if you are a participant that gets to enjoy it. Working it, is quite another story. But once it is over, and all the clean-up that follows next week, I will once again be able to put the dread behind for a little bit, until September gets close again next year. Yes, towards the end of next week I will be able to happily put September behind for another year, and look forward to my favorite month of the year (which coincidentally immediately follows)...October! Yea! Even though October is busy, it is busy with fun stuff...like hubby's birthday, our anniversary, Adam's birthday (and Brendan's b-day follows in early Nov), Halloween, and cool weather, pretty changing leaves, and pumpkins. Fall is my favorite season. The lovely time between dreaded September and stressful, busy holiday season. Ahhhh! Can't wait!

Doctor, Tooth Fairy Busted, and Christmas Planning

Yesterday the school called for us to pick up Brendan. (they couldn't get ahold of me, so Joe ended up taking care of it). He fell at recess and hit his head hard on the concrete and scraped himself up on his shoulder and arm. Poor guy. Joe was able to get him into the doctor's office, just to be sure it wasn't anything to worry about- you never know w/ head injuries. She seemed to think he was fine and told us signs to watch for. He felt pretty crummy last night, but when he got up this morning he seemed to be much better.

Also yesterday (before the fall), Brendan lost another tooth! One of the front ones, next to the other one he lost recently...just in time for school pictures next week. Guess he will have a semi-toothless grin this year.

He was excited about putting the tooth under his pillow so that he could "earn" more money. We have a system set up that he has been earning nickles for chores and when he reaches $1 he can spend it or save it to get something bigger. So he was thrilled to find 2 quarters under his pillow this morning to add to his earnings. But, shortly after that, he asked Joe if we put the money there. He said that everyone at school has been saying that the tooth fairy isn't real and that the parents leave the money. Joe told him we were sleeping too. But then we decided to go ahead and tell him he is right, when Adam isn't around. I guess it is time for him to know. I'm wondering if he will then start to wonder about Santa this year too. Guess we will find out.

Speaking of Santa, and Christmas, I saw a link from Org Junkie a couple days ago about the site 100 Days to Christmas...have you seen this? It is a site that helps take you through the steps of getting ready for the holidays starting now, so that you are not totally stressing out. I'm going to try to follow it this year, because anything I can do to make something in life more organized and less stressful would be great! Check it out if you're interested:

Wordless Wednesday: My 3 yr old's Artwork

(the explanation he gave for what the picture was of: "Butterfly on a turtle". lol)

What Will You Be Remembered For?

On Saturday we went to a memorial service and luncheon for Joe's uncle who passed away. He was not an old man, only mid-60's, but he had been dealing with Parkinsons and Diabetes, not to mention some tough personal issues such as being a victim of identity theft, and some other things.

At the luncheon, people were getting up and telling stories and things that they remembered about him. The stories and memories people shared were not about what he did for a living or big things he accomplished in life, or anything like that. The main things that repeatedly got brought up were little things he had done to help family and neighbors, how he made sure to be at family events, and his laugh. A niece of his told about remembering when he and his wife would come play cards with her parents when she was a kid, and she always loved to hear him laughing in the other room. It was a memory and comforting thing that she had always carried with her even now into adulthood. Several others mentioned his laugh as well, in various stories and thoughts and memories. He himself probably never knew that his laugh meant anything to anyone, and he probably never thought that it would be brought up and talked about repeatedly at his funeral either. Isn't it funny how something as simple as your laugh can touch so many people and you never even know it? Kinda makes you stop and wonder...what will you be remembered for?

Menu Plan Monday

Oops. Posted my previous message forgetting that it was Monday and I needed to also post my Menu Plan Monday!

Monday: Jennie-O Turkey and Gravy (carry-over from last week)

Tuesday: Balsamic Chicken w/ Mushrooms (we ended up skipping this last week)

Wednesday: Sloppy Joes

Thursday: leftovers

Friday: Pizza/family night

Saturday & Sunday: On your own, I have to work all weekend at a festival

Flash Floods and Flood Insurance Headaches!

We don't live anywhere near where Ike hit, however, we did receive lots of rain this weekend due to leftovers of Ike, causing some flash flooding in the area...

This is normally a field with cows. It was completely under water and looked like a lake, not a field.

This is one of the roads we usually drive on to get out. Looked like a waterfall going across the street and down the hill into the field.

This was our little creek on our property, it is normally ankle deep, and sometimes dried up with little to no water...it looked more like a river this weekend. But still NO WHERE NEAR our house which is on the other end of our property and way up on a cliff about 25-30ft higher. Have I complained on here about the whole flood insurance issue we are dealing with? I can't remember. The bank is trying to say we have to get a huge amount of flood insurance, and it would raise our house payment almost $200 per month!!! When we bought the house it was not considered in the flood zone, but after Katrina, FEMA apparently redrew some lines and suddenly we are considered in the flood zone. Any idiot can look at our house and property and know that there is no way we would ever flood from the creek. During the Great Flood of '93 and everything before and since it in no way shape or form came even close to having water near it. It is ridiculous to have to pay that outrageous amount for flood insurance when we will NOT flood. Ugh! It is very aggravating. It has been a long process of arguing with the bank, etc, but to make a long story shorter, right now we are trying to fill out the LOMA form for FEMA to try to get things taken care of. It is so unfair that we have to have the burden and expense of proving something that is so obviously clear.

Anyway, there's a lot more to that story, lots of things we've tried and conversations had with the bank and FEMA, etc, but that's the basics of it. It is very frustrating. And we certainly cannot afford to pay that much more per month. *sigh*

Blog Update and Follow Me :)

Does my blog look a little different? I was trying to do something and discovered that I couldn't because I had the old "template" tab instead of the newer "layout" tab. Guess I've been on blogger too long. Anyway, I clicked something to update it, not realizing I would LOSE all of my other stuff in the sidebar and top. So, I spent some time last night trying to recover what I could. I really like my header banner title thingy that Kelly did as part of my design awhile back, so I freaked out thinking I had lost it forever. But then I remembered she had told me that she set up photobucket for me, and lo and behold I found the header graphic there. Woohoo. Still couldn't recreate the rest of the design, but that's okay, it was probably time to change it a little anyway. I followed a link from Melzie's blog to a website with free blog backgrounds and found one that matched pretty well. Uploaded it, uploaded the header and voila! My blog is updated, has a somewhat fun new look, and I didn't have to lose the title/header. Yippee!

Oh, and if you read my blog, you can now click on the Follow gadget at the top of the right side and "follow me" :)

Boys! Gotta Love 'Em...Cuz You're Not Allowed to Strangle Them!

OMG. Earlier this week I noticed a few of Brendan's Game Boy games in the bottom of his backpack. I thought this was weird, since he lost his Game Boy at a hotel back in May and he isn't getting it replaced until his birthday. I asked him why he had brought games in his backpack (thinking he was going to say that he was playing his games on the other kids' Game Boys on the bus- as he has sometimes done in the past). Unfortunately those were not the words that he said.


B: "So I can trade them."

Me: "Trade your games? Trade them for what?"

B: "Pokemon cards"

Me: "WHAT?! You traded Game Boy games for POKEMON CARDS?!"

B: "Yes. I don't have a Game Boy to play them on anyway."

Me: "Brendan! How many did you trade?! Where are the rest of your games? Please tell me you did not trade ALL of the rest of them?!"

B: "No. I don't know."

Me: "Tell me the truth"

B: "Yes."

Me: "How many- how many games are gone?"

B: "Six"

Me: "SIX?! How many Pokemon cards did you trade them for?"

B: "Four"


OMG! I was so mad. I tried to explain to him that six Game Boy Games cost around $100, while four Pokemon cards cost about $1.00 and very sternly told him he is NOT to trade Game Boy Games or anything else for Pokemon cards. And I told him he needs to return the Pokemon cards and ask the boy for his games back. I just hope the boy will be a good person about this and do it. So far he has "forgotten" to bring them back to Brendan the last 2 days. *sigh*


And I thought what Brendan did was pretty bad...until I found out what Adam did this morning. Apparently sometime after I left for work this morning, Adam got a hold of one of Brendan's crystal rocks, and threw it at Brendan. Only, Brendan moved, so he missed. And the crystal rock hit the glass panel window by the glass door instead. Shattered into a million little pieces. This is no small window, this is a window panel about 5 ft tall! The entire thing is completely shattered. The pictures don't really do it justice, but here's an idea of the damage:









*sigh*

Wordless Wednesday: Bedtime Reading

Weekend Recap and Menu Plan Monday

This weekend we ended up having last minute plans pop up. Joe's sister let us know Thursday that they were all getting together on Saturday for lunch for their mom's birthday. So, since that is somewhat of a drive for us, we decided to combine it with a trip to the zoo! We had a nice lunch and enjoyed seeing Joe's side of the family. Then we took the boys to the zoo. One of Joe's sisters & her boyfriend decided to come along with us too.

Both boys loved seeing the penguins!

Adam said the monkeys were his favorite.

I like the way this photo of one of the bears turned out...it's almost like he's looking right at the camera, posing for me :)

I've been meaning to take the boys to the zoo for a long time now, so I'm glad we finally did.

Now on to Menu Plan Monday...

Monday: Llyod's Shredded BBQ Chicken on whole wheat buns

Tuesday: Balsamic Chicken w/ Mushrooms (recipe below)

Wednesday: Quinoa/Shrimp/Veggie dish (my own thrown-together creation)

Thursday: leftovers

Friday: Pizza/family night

Saturday: Jennie-O Turkey & Gravy roast

Sunday: Whatever we feel like at the time

Balsamic Chicken with Mushrooms

Servings: 4

Ingredients:

2 tsp vegetable oil

3 Tbsp balsamic vinegar

2 tsp Dijon mustard

1 large garlic clove(s), crushed

1 pound uncooked boneless, skinless chicken breast, four 4-oz pieces

2 cup mushroom(s), small, halved (we use combo of mushrooms & pieces of bell pepper)

1/3 cup canned chicken broth

1/4 tsp dried thyme, crumbled

In a nonstick skillet, heat 1 teaspoon of oil. In a medium bowl, mix 2 tablespoons of vinegar, the mustard and garlic. Add chicken and turn to coat. Transfer chicken and marinade to skillet. Sauté chicken until cooked through, about 3 minutes on each side. Transfer chicken to a platter and keep warm. Heat remaining teaspoon of oil in skillet. Sauté mushrooms for 1 minute. Add broth, thyme and remaining tablespoon of vinegar. Cook, stirring occasionally, until mushrooms are deep brown, about 2 minutes longer. Serve chicken topped with mushrooms.

Goodbye Dial-Up!

I am so excited- we are finally FINALLY ditching the dial-up and moving up to DSL! Yes, I know I am many many years behind the times on this, but we could never justify the extra expense. We still couldn't, except our company is running a special right now for current dial-up customers to switch to DSL and we get the activation and modem for free, which is over $200 savings. And then the monthly fee after that is only going to be about $5 more per month than we've been paying for dial-up, so we couldn't pass this up. We are SO sick and tired of the extremely slow connection, that we were avoiding even using our home computer much because everything was taking too long. I can't wait to get it all hooked up! They delivered all the stuff today, and we will be self-installing everything this weekend! Woohoo!

Wordless Wednesday- My Youngest Little Cutie

Menu Plan Monday & Tackle it Tuesday

The holiday yesterday threw me off, and I forgot to post my Menu Plan Monday, and here it is time for Tackle it Tuesday...so, I'm posting both today.

MONDAY: Deer burgers

TUESDAY: Chicken Lo Mein

WEDNESDAY: Crockpot Chicken Tacos

THURSDAY: leftovers

FRIDAY: Pizza/family night

SATURDAY: Ham crockpot dish

SUNDAY: Everyone grab whatever they want

Well, we didn't exactly completely tackle it, but Joe made some great progress on our new mudroom (where our washer/dryer used to be, we are turning it into a mud room).

Peeling off the awful pink/flowery wallpaper the previous owners put up (I'm not a fan of pink or flowery!)...

Joe had to redo/redirect the ducting, since the vent was going to be *in* the closet if he left it the way it was, so he redid it so that the ducting would come out of the front of the new closet at the bottom, and he built a sub-floor to accomodate it...

Drywall going up and wiring run for switch and light...

We are on our way! We'll be putting in this closet and a bench next to it and shelves above the bench. Should make it SO much easier for getting everyone out the door in the mornings and having everything we need right by the door. I can't wait!